Thirty years ago today

On June 5, 1977 , the first Apple II computers were introduced for sale. Back then, their standard configuration was 4Kb of RAM, the Integer BASIC programming language burned into the ROM, and an audio cassette interface for loading and storing data. There was also a RF interface so it could be connected to a regular television. Their CPU was a MOS 6502 with a clock speed of 1Mhz. That's 4 (Four) kilobytes of RAM and a clock speed of 1 (One) megahertz.

In today's world, an Apple II is about as powerful as a garage door opener. But in terms of future impact on my life, the Apple II might be the most powerful product ever! From my first exposure to that machine in 8th grade math lab, I was hooked, and knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. When I grew up, I wanted to be a computer programmer!

Back in the early days of personal computing, the Apple II was the iPod of home computers. Other models (TRS-80s, Commodores) might have been cheaper and just as powerful, but the Apple II had that special something. I've thrown away a half-dozen or so personal computers over the past twenty years after upgrading to bigger and better models, but I still have the Apple IIc that my parents bought me for my high school graduation. There's no way I'm ever going to throw that away! I don't have any programs to run on it, but if I wanted to, I could turn it on today, hook it up to my TV, and write a few programs. The BASIC interpreter is burned into the ROM. And even now, I could probably program a space shuttle in Applesoft BASIC!

I was reading Steve Wozniak's autobiography iWoz, earlier this year, and he said that one of his goals for the Apple was to inspire users to write their own programs. Instead of being bundled with lots of programs like computers are now, the Apple II came with a BASIC interpreter and a tape recorder. You don't need us to write programs, write your own programs! And there were probably lots of people just like me who were inspired enough by this to end up programming for a living. And sometimes just blogging, while appearing to be programming. Thanks Woz!